Tow #30: Letter to a New APELC Student

Dear New APELC Student,

I hope you did well on your summer essay! Yes, it was summer work, but that doesn't mean Mr. Yost will go easy on you. He grades every essay as if he were reading an essay from the AP Exam. But don't panic! One bad grade won't kill you. Just know that if you did not do well on the essay, you should probably study for the test.  That is one big mistake I made an the beginning of the year. Take the assessments very seriously throughout the course. He has the same standard for you at the beginning of the year as he will at the end of the year. That is why this class will seem very difficult at first. However, as the year goes on, it gets easier. You will learn the skills that are necessary for you to succeed in this class. So don't panic! If you get a B the first marking period, so what? You can still get an A for the year. I know plenty of people who got a B the first marking period, but still got an A for the year (I unfortunately was not one of those people.) Besides, a B in this class is difficult to get, so be proud of that. Lower your standards! Only 20% of people get an A in the class anyways! Even if I had gotten a C in this class, I still would not regret taking it. I have learned so much more in this class than I ever have in any other English class. I used to coast through English class and get an A without even trying and without learning anything new. Now I've learned so many new skills that have improved my analysis writing skills as well as argument writing skills. I learned to accept that there is never any black and white with writing. Say goodbye to TEAEAC and TICAP essays because they will be of no use to you anymore.  If all that matters to you is getting an A in a hard course for your transcript, then don't bother taking this class. DROP OUT NOW! Go to honors English where you can do the same thing you have been doing for the past 10 years in English classes (assuming you came from Honors English, I have no idea what gifted was like.) If you want your writing to move away from the typical 5 paragraph essay, please stay in this class, no matter how hard it gets. I promise you, if you really care about English, it will be worth it. Getting a B doesn't matter! If it's your first B ever who cares? It was probably bound to happen anyways! So relax, it's only school. When times get tough, think about why you took this class and what it will eventually lead to. You will do amazing things in life and your grade in this class won't matter then. I'd take B any day if it meant I learned something useful! I hope you can to.

Sincerely,

An Old APELC Student

P.S. Take your TOW's seriously! Mr. Yost grades them as assessments sometimes and they really do help prepare you for the AP Exam.

Tow #29: Documentary Rhetorical Analysis (Part 2)

Any amount of violent crime in one country is too much crime. However, it is impossible to prevent all of the crime that happens in one place before it happens, but, according to the documentary "Psychopath", the use of the Psychopathy Checklist could prevent a significant amount of crime. The Psychopathy Checklist is a diagnostic tool that determines whether or not a person is a psychopath and their degree of psychopathy on a scale of 1 to 40. The United States could greatly benefit from including the Psychopathy Checklist in a child's doctor check-up because a person's basic personality is mostly developed by the age of eighteen, and roughly half of the violent crime committed in the United States is committed by psychopaths. If there is any hope to change the behavior of psychopaths, it should be done when they are children. A child's personality is much easier to mold than that of an adult. For example, if a child has the personality trait of being too noisy all the time, a parent will scold them to change their behavior. Eventually the child will learn to only be noisy in appropriate situations. If an adult has the same problem, it is much more difficult for them to change their behavior because no one holds any authority over them. Psychopaths should be identified at a young age so their tendencies to commit violent crimes are reduced. It is important to address their issues early so that they are less likely to commit violent crimes in the future. Psychopaths should also be identified early in life because they are responsible for about half of the violent crime that is committed in America, according to "Psychopath". If psychopaths are identified in childhood, they can learn from a young age what is right and what is wrong, especially if they are taught by parents who are aware of their condition. Parents can be more careful about letting certain behaviors slide. Even if half of the psychopath's behaviors are corrected, there is still a significant amount of violent crime reduced. I understand that this solution may be unethical; I'm sure mothers would not be thrilled to learn their child is a psychopath. However, violent crime is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. By having children tested early in childhood, lives could be saved, including those of the victims and the psychopaths themselves. Psychopaths commit half of the violent crimes in America, but their personality cannot change too much after the age of 18. This is why something needs to be done about the issue soon, before the amount of crime in America escalates even further.

Tow #28: Documentary Rhetorical Analysis (Part 1)

Psychopath is generally a negative word. However, most people overuse the word, so it has strayed from its true meaning. They joke around and call any crazy person a psychopath. However, psychopaths are not as common as people make them out to be. "Psychopath" is a documentary that was published in the year 2000 that was used to explain to the average adult about common misconceptions about psychopaths. The main purpose of the documentary was to emphasize that psychopaths can be found everywhere and that not all psychopaths commit horrible crimes. However, they do show that much of the violent crime seen in the world today is committed by psychopaths, therefore something should be done to stop this behavior. "Psychopath" uses interviews of real-life psychopaths, expert psychologists' studies, and comparisons of normal people and psychopaths to educate the British and American population about the truth behind psychopaths. Two psychopaths were interviewed and used for this documentary, but one man in particular was effective in explaining what exactly a psychopath is. This man was a prisoner named Wayne (his last name was not given) who had already been in prison for ten years for molesting young boys and killing his brother. When this man spoke, it was chilling because his tone was so calm and convincing. He seemed really charismatic and was able to make the viewer believe that killing his brother was justified. The inclusion of this man's honest thoughts was crucial in helping the viewer understand how the psychopathic mind works. Experts can explain the psychopathic mind as best as they can, but showing an actual psychopath's thought process was much more effective in gaining an understanding about how these types of people think, and therefore helped educate the audience about all psychopaths. However, an expert's facts about psychopaths was also very helpful in explaining the misconceptions about psychopaths. They provided plenty of statistics and explained how psychopaths are diagnosed. For example, one statistic was that 20% of the prison population is made up of psychopaths, but about half of violent crime is committed by psychopaths. This shows that there is a problem with likelihood of crime being committed by psychopaths, therefore their behavior should be altered to better benefit the world. Lastly, comparisons of psychopathic people to non-psychopathic people was able to show why psychopaths commit horrible crimes. In the documentary, there were two images of brains held side by side; one was a normal brain, the other psychopathic. The normal brain's emotional part was much more activated than the psychopathic brain. This illustrated the fact that psychopaths do not experience emotions the same way non-psychopaths do, and so they lack empathy and compassion. This helped the audience gain a better understanding of the psychopathic brain and therefore helped educate them more. After watching this documentary, I will never use the word psychopath to describe a crazy person. Psychopaths are not crazy and it is insensitive to associate the two words with each other. Hopefully, in the future, as a result of this documentary and other's like it, people will refrain from over-using of the word.

Tow #27: TOW Reflection

After reading through some of the TOW's I wrote throughout the year, I noticed that I have made a lot of progress in improving my writing. First of all, I got much better at introducing my topic. With my first marking period TOW's, I went right into information about the author or evidence from the article. Towards the end of the year, the TOW's started with a general statement to better introduce my topic. I also noticed that my TOW's gradually became less formulaic. Although I never fully got the grasp of breaking away from a certain structure, I think I at least improved in that my writing became more natural. Overall, I think I mastered identifying the purposes of texts, whether it was a short article, a full length book, or a picture. At the beginning of the year, I struggled a bit with misidentifying the purpose of what I was reading, especially with the visual texts. As the year went on, I definitely got better at finding the purpose of texts, and I started to find it more quickly with practice. I could still use a lot of improvement with other aspects of writing TOW's. For example, when I analyze rhetorical devices, I find myself repeating a lot of my analysis. I will say that one rhetorical device gives the same effect as another, when in reality the effect may be similar, but I need to make the distinction between the two devices. It is important for me to work on seeing each rhetorical device as an individual tool that helps bring together one single purpose in its own effective way. While these TOW assignments often seemed tedious, I think that I benefited a lot from doing them. It was good way to practice writing analysis type essays throughout the year. This helped with the AP exam because analysis was the first essay we learned, so when we shifted into argument based essays, we could still practice our analysis skills. I also think I benefited from these TOW assignments because it improved my writing. With so much practice, it is almost impossible not to improve. The only problem with the TOW assignments was that I think we did them too often. Had we done them once every other week or once every ten days, I think I would have written better TOW's and benefited even more from them.

Tow #25: Visual Text: Don't Drink and Drive Advertisement

Drinking and driving has been a huge issue in America for many years. Due to the amount of car accidents that driving while on the influence of alcohol can cause, many car companies and other organizations have created advertisements to help discourage drunk driving among the American population. These advertisements typically have a strong appeal to pathos and a demonstration of the consequence of drunk driving. This advertisement above is no exception. The picture above uses a statistic paired with shocking imagery to show that drinking and driving is an unacceptable behavior because of the damage it brings to the quality of life of people. The statistic that this advertisement uses is that every forty-eight seconds, another person if affected by a drunk driver and becomes handicapped. That is a lot of people to become handicapped and it shows that it is unacceptable to have so many people be handicapped.  With this irrefutable evidence, this advertisement not only appeals to pathos, but also logos. Someone looking at this advertisement logically will know that drunk driving must stop because it happens to often. In addition to statistics, the advertisement also uses a imagery to show Americans that drinking and driving is wrong. The image that this advertisement uses is a handicapped parking spot. By itself the image is not very shocking, but paired with the words that a drunk driver "makes another person eligible to park here" creates shock value. The image of the handicapped parking spot makes the viewer see will happen to someone if they are hit by a car caused by a drunk driver. By combining an appeal to logos and pathos through statistics that pair well with the image, this advertisement successfully achieves its purpose of making people aware of the consequences of drunk driving.  

IRB Introduction #4: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

For my fourth independent reading book, I chose to read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. I am reading this book mostly because I have enjoyed crime shows for many years, but I have never read a crime book. I also chose to read a book about a murder because it could go nicely with another book a read this year called Stiff. That book taught me a lot about what happens to people after they die, so any lingo about the deceased victims should be more common knowledge. I hope to gain from this book a better understanding as to how and why people are capable of being driven to commit such violent acts. Because the book the true, I'm hoping that the story will be much more chilling than other books I have read.

Tow #24: IRB "Me Talk Pretty One Day" By David Sedaris (Part 2)

Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris, is a collection of twenty-seven creative nonfiction essays by an author known for his satirical and sarcastic tone. These essays are divided into two parts, One and Deux. One was mostly about Sedaris's life growing up in North Carolina and being forced to deal wtih a speech inpediment as well as other issues that separated him from other children. However, Deux switches into the story of how Sedaris moved to France and the struggles of learning French. The fact that the second part is called Deux, the French word for two, it indicates the shift structurally and creates an interesting effect. Sedaris's overall purpose in Deux is to tell the story of his struggles of learning French, which he achieves by using examples of the some of the unpleasant social situations he ended up in due to a lack of experience with the language as well as references to the title of his book. When he first started learning French, most of Sedaris's sentences were jumbled and made little sense. Sedaris demonstrates this by translating what he said in a humorous way. For example, he would say things like "see you again yesterday" (163) or other statements that made people shake their heads until he was able to "talk pretty one day". By including the exact translation of the wording he used, Sedaris shows the audience exactly what native speakers thought of his speech. This demonstrates the struggle that Sedaris had to go through to learn French. When he uses this to satirize himself, it is entertaining to the audience because it is humorous. Sedaris also alludes to the title of his book a lot throughout this section of the book. In fact, one of the essays is called "Me Talk Pretty One Day." An example of this title inclusion in this essay is after Sedaris tried to comfort a classmate that was feeling depressed about his struggles with French. Sedaris said, "much more work and someday you talk pretty" (171). The inclusion of part of the title of the book and essay create an interesting effect that makes the story more entertaining. It also shows Sedaris's overall purpose more clearly because it is the title of the book. Overall, this book is enjoyable because of the humor through the use of personal anecdotes and allusions to his own title that helps drive the story.

Tow #23: Article: "Legalizing Medical Marijuana May Actually Reduce Crime" by Matt Ferner

Goals: When reading I would like to take better notes and spend more time with the text to fully understand it. When writing the TOW, I would like to avoid repetition in my analysis.

The debate over whether marijuana, medical or recreational, should be legalized has been an issue in the United States for decades. Matt Ferner, an author of many political opinion articles for the Huffington Post, added to this age-old debate by arguing that the legalization of medical marijuana does not create more crime but actually could reduce crime. In order to support this claim, Ferner uses facts from colleges who conducted an extensive amount of research on the topic, as well as statistics provided by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. In order to show that marijuana does not increase crime, Ferner uses data from Robert Morris, a professor of criminology at the University of Texas and conductor of the study of the effect of medical marijuana on crime rates from 1990 to 2006. Morris told the Huffington Post the he "found no evidence of increases in [...] crimes for states after legalizing marijuana for medical use" and in fact found that for crimes such as homicide and assault, there was "partial support for declines" in crime rates. Ferner uses Morris to appeal to ethos because he demonstrates that the source he used is credible. In addition to an appeal to ethos, Ferner's inclusion of Morris's facts show the audience that medical marijuana could be a benefit to society because there is no evidence to support that it increases crime rates. Along with data from the University of Texas, Ferner uses statistics from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to prove that medical marijuana does not increase crime. This source is used mainly to show that marijuana is not the main cause of violent acts of crimes, but alcohol is. According to a study conducted by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, "25 percent to 30 percent of violent crimes are linked to alcohol use." This is where Ferner's argument becomes ineffective. Rather than proving that medical marijuana reduces crime rates, he shows that alcohol increases crime rates. This a tangent that weakens his argument because while alcohol increases crime, medical marijuana may also increase crime. Although he does appeal to ethos, Ferner does not fully achieve his purpose due to the tangent of talking about alcohol rather than sticking to his original idea to proving that medical marijuana decreases crime.

Tow #22: Article: "America's Creepy, Surveillance-Endorsing Love of NCIS" by Gregg Easterbrook

It has been about 12 and a half years since 9/11 and the tragic event still influences some of our most popular television programs. Gregg Easterbrook, contributing editor of The Atlantic, examines the effect of 9/11 on crime shows like NCIS in his latest article "America's Creepy, Surveillance-Endorsing Love of NCIS." In this article, Easterbrook uses comparisons of NCIS to the real world through the use of statistics and specific examples from the show to prove that NCIS is NSA propaganda that is America's most watched drama due to a post 9/11 audience watching it. The National Security Agency, or NSA, is an intelligence agency of the United States government that protects the security of American citizens. This security includes protection from terrorist threats, which is a prominent subject in most of the episodes of NCIS. Easterbrook uses statistics to prove that unlike NCIS, these crimes do not occur as often in real life and the bad guys do not get caught every time. For example, Easterbrook stated that in 2012 only 1 in 800 officers actually fired at a suspect. In NCIS and other shows like it, firearms are used on a regular basis. This shows Americans an unrealistic depiction of government heroes that must defend our country daily. A post 9/11 audience enjoys this type of show because the government agents or so-called "good guys" are constantly shooting at and defeating the bad guys, which in NCIS are usually terrorists. Easterbrook shows that this is also NSA propaganda because it makes the NSA look almost perfect because they always defeat the bad guys. Easterbrook also uses specific examples from NCIS to prove that 9/11 influences the show. Easterbrook stated that in one episode of NCIS: Los Angeles, terrorists with generic foreign accents had taken three atomic bombs left over from the Cold War and threatened to "kill everyone west of the Mississippi River in 48 hours." It was ultimately up to the government to save America, so it was depicting the NSA as America's ultimate superhero. Easterbrook argues that the reason why this show is so popular is because post 9/11 audiences enjoy seeing our government beat the terrorists even if it is fictitious. With the use of statistics and examples, Easterbrook proved that the connection between popular drama shows and 9/11 audiences is very possible.

Tow #21: Visual Text: The Beautiful Letdown Album Cover

In 2003, The Beautiful Letdown became the fourth studio album released by Switchfoot. This album marks the transformation from a locally famous San Diego band to a nationwide mainstream rock band. After the release of the hit singles "Meant to Live" and "Dare You to Move" Switchfoot became much more famous and needed an album cover to back it up in order for more people to buy their album and become fans. The Beautiful Letdown album cover is able to summarize the album's sound while maintaining a visually attractive appeal through a contrast of color and a simple design. The Beautiful Letdown, the song, is about the fact that generally no matter how many good things happen to a person, they are still letdown by life. However, it is beautiful because those letdowns are often bittersweet as they teach us lessons and make us better people. The contrast of color portrays that song and the entire album. This is because every song on the album is either about the good or bad in life, or both. The bottom half of the album is an ugly yellow-brown color filled with dirt, but as you move your eyes upward, the color becomes a beautiful clear sky. This has religious symbolism that shows that down on earth everything lets people down, but as you get closer and closer to the end of your life you get closer to heaven in the sky, which is symbolized through the clear blue color at the top. This summarizes the album because life is a letdown sometimes. This is also visually appealing because the change of color pops out on a shelf, so a consumer would likely stop to look at it rather than walk past it. In addition to the color, the simplicity of the album cover summarizes the album and is visually appealing. The only subject on the cover is a old electric guitar at the bottom of an empty pool. It symbolizes the letdown of life, but also the simplicity of their music. Switchfoot did not try to become mainstream, they just wrote whatever songs came to them. The simplicity of the album cover reflects their idea of simple yet great music. The simplicity is also visually attractive because it is a contrast to album covers that are crazy and complex, so the uniqueness of this album being simple would make someone stop to pick up the CD. The Beautiful Letdown's album cover was an effective one that marked the transition from local to national where the simple color and design truly summarized the sound of the album. 

Tow #20: Essay: "Big Score: When Mom Takes the SATs" by Elizabeth Kolbert

Goals:
 -read a much lengthier text than I have in the past
-take more notes as I read the text to find more rhetorical devices and then find the common ones
-focus more on purpose of the text rather than getting hung up on the devices
-connect to thesis throughout TOW
-spend more time writing the TOW and make it more like a mini essay
-use good examples to explain how author achieves purpose
-have a better introduction/conclusion

The SATs are supposed to be a test that measures a student's ability to answer math, writing and critical reading questions to determine if they are fit to attend college. However, Elizabeth Kolbert, a Yale university graduate, author of six books, and mother of three, claims that the SAT does not properly assess whether a student is right for college or not. In her most recent essay, "Big Score" which was published in The New Yorker, Kolbert asks thought provoking rhetorical questions and uses multiple experiences of people who have taken the test to show that the SAT is not an accurate way to measure a student's intellect. The rhetorical questions that Kolbert uses in her essay are designed to make the reader think about something that should have an obvious answer but instead makes the reader think about many possible answers. For example, in the beginning of Kolbert's essay, "Big Score", there is a caption under a picture that says "the SATs may determine a student's future, but what do they really measure?" Initially, the reader may think the test simply measures math, critical reading, and writing. Then, the reader should realize that the answer to the question is not that simple if the author is asking it. It allows the audience to be more accepting of Kolbert's answer to her question. Later when Kolbert proves that the SATs are not an accurate way to measure a student's intellect, the audience is more open to agree with the author because the question she asked allowed the reader to question their own thoughts. Along with asking rhetorical questions, Kolbert proves that the SAT is does not measure intellect by using her own experience of taking the SAT as a fifty year-old mother and other people's experiences. According to Kolbert, the SAT only measures the skills needed to pass the test and not much more. In order to prove that, she often references Debbie Stier's experience as a forty-six year-old woman studying for and taking the SAT seven times in order to achieve a perfect score. She did not get close to a perfect score in anything except for the writing section. Kolbert uses her story to show that if an accomplished author that feverishly studies for a test seven times cannot get a perfect score, there is a flaw in the test due to its inaccuracy of evaluating people. Kolbert's setup with her use of rhetorical questions and then her evidence with the use of experiences from people who took the actual test ultimately help her achieve her purpose of showing people that the SAT does not work, which will hopefully change the way future American students begin college.

Tow #19: IRB "Me Talk Pretty One Day" By David Sedaris (Part 1)

David Sedaris, a writer known for his satirical tone and sometimes crude humor, published his bestselling book in 2000 called Me Talk Pretty One Day. This book is a collection of twenty-seven essays split into two parts. The first part is called One, which includes details from Sedaris’s childhood and young adulthood before he moved to Paris, while the second part, Deux, includes stories from his life after moving to Paris with his boyfriend, Hugh.  Although he may have a much larger purpose that is more evident later in the book, so far Sedaris’s purpose is a entertain people by telling the story of his life structured in a series of short, creative nonfiction essays. So far, he has created an interesting and entertaining story by using foreshadow, hyperbole, and fresh metaphors.  In the first essay, Sedaris foreshadows how he first started speech therapy lessons. A woman asked him a question that if he had answered differently, he would not have revealed his lisp. However, before the audience knows why the simple question affected his life so much, Sedaris uses foreshadow by saying “it was an answer I would regret for years to come.” The effect of foreshadowing keeps the reader interested in his story and successfully entertains the reader. Along with foreshadowing, Sedaris keeps his story interesting by using metaphors and hyperboles in order to entertain his audience. When addressing his crystal methamphetamine addiction in the fourth essay, he states that “a fistful of burning hair could not begin to represent the mess I had made of my life.” This quote stuck out because it is fresh, meaning many people likely had never heard anyone compare their lives to being worse than a fistful of burning hair. This made the reader realize just how hard it was for Sedaris to overcome his addiction. Although the two examples I used were not humorous, it is important to note that Sedaris used humorous metaphors and foreshadowing as well. This humor along with his creative nonfiction writing techniques is ultimately what drives the plot and keeps me interested to start reading Deux.

Tow #18: Article: "The 'American Dream' May Be Bad for Your Health" by Namratha Kandula

During the 2014 Superbowl, Coca Cola released an advertisement that reflected a modern United States by showing the many cultures that are in this country.  While most people would view that as embracing the melting pot and diversity of America, Namratha Kandula viewed the ad in a different way. According to Kandula, the Coca Cola ad was actually saying "drinking Coca-Cola is American," therefore "Coke is part of the American Dream." Kandula went on to explain that lots of food companies tend to market to immigrants because psychologically, people associate food with identity. Also, when an immigrant decides to assimilate into American culture, that person tends to gradually change their diet to a super-sized American food that is higher in calories and unhealthy. Kandula in this article attempts to make people more aware of the obesity problem with immigrants to help them avoid the traps of modern marketing. Kandula achieves this purpose first by establishing her credibility, then by using examples from her own research as well as other experts' research. Kandula strongly appeals to ethos throughout the article. First, she informs the audience that "as an Indian immigrant, [she] felt pride seeing the faces and voices" of the people featured in the Coca Cola commercial. However, she later realized that this is exactly the effect that Coca Cola wanted to have on their target audience. If Kandula was not an immigrant, her opinion of the commercial would not have carried as much weight in her argument. Kandula also establishes her credibility describing her profession as "a physician whose research focuses on heart disease and diabetes prevention in immigrants." When she explains her own findings as evidence, the audience knows it is valid evidence. Kandula's research has indicated that "the junk food industry is reaching new immigrants long before the public health system can, leading to rapid deterioration of their dietary habits." Evidence like this example and her appeal to ethos help Kandula ultimately achieve her purpose of counteracting the effects of the modern marketing of food.

IRB Introduction #3: Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

For my third independent reading book, I chose Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. I chose this book because I wanted to read an autobiography since I have not read one yet this year. While looking through the list of the 100 best nonfiction books ever written, there was only one author that I recognized. That author was David Sedaris. I recognized his name because earlier this year a wrote an analysis essay on one of his essays. I liked that essay so much that I figured I would like reading a full length book about him. This book is about Sedaris's youth as well as the years he spent living in France. Hopefully I will enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed his shorter piece called "A Plague of Tics."

Tow #17: Visual Text: "Ratchet and Clank Collection" Cover Art

On August 28th, 2012, Insomniac Games released "Ratchet and Clank Collection" for the PlayStation 3 in the United States. In this special 10th anniversary edition of the game, one disc contained the first three Ratchet and Clank games digitally remastered for the PlayStation 3, because they were all originally released on the PlayStation 2. The picture above is the cover art that was used for the inside cover of the game. Insomniac Games chose to put this picture as cover art to summarize Ratchet's, and his robot friend Clank's, journey of their first three times saving the galaxy to remind old fans of the first three games and allow new fans to get a preview of the games. This artwork is effective because it not only tells a story, but also the character development of Ratchet through the use of body language and color. From the first picture to the last picture, Ratchet goes from being fresh-faced and excited Lombax (the made-up animal that Ratchet is) to an angry, professional hero. This illustrates Ratchet's development as a character from immaturity to maturity. The body language that mainly shows Ratchet's development is his eyes. In the first game, Ratchet's eyes are wide. However, by the second game they are squinting showing that he has some unfinished business to take care of. Finally in the last picture, Ratchet's eyes and powerful stance tell the viewer that Ratchet has experienced many horrors in the world and is determined to end these horrors to save the world. Ratchet knows that his journey is much bigger than it was in the first game where his biggest problems were shooting giant guns and defeating robots in hoverboard races. The artwork also tells the story of Ratchet through the use of color. In the first game, the background is a dull blueprint that shows various weapons Ratchet learned how to use in the first game. The next picture is purple, which is still a cool color, so it does not indicate stress. However, there is a bright light in the background that shows a larger conflict is coming closer. Finally, the last picture is a fiery red that screams terror and distress. The red color also symbolizes the anger that Ratchet now has to not let the villains take over the galaxy. Overall, Insomniac was successful in illustrating the character development and story of Ratchet. After all, I have been so attracted to the picture ever since I got the game that I had to write a TOW about it.

Tow #16 IRB: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (Part 2)

While I was reading Stiff, I could not help but wonder the entire time what Roach was going to do with her body once she died. She discussed multiple options throughout the book and in the final chapter. Some of the options for human remains were the traditional burial or cremation, while others were less traditional such as plastination, donating the brain to a brain bank, or donating the skeleton and leaving the rest of the body to be boiled away. The ending of this book is the part that was the best. After explaining all of the amazing things that cadavers can do, Roach leaves the reader dying to know what she will do. In order to explain to her audience of what she is going to do with her body, she uses the same witty humor that was present throughout the entire book as well as clear explanations of the pros and cons of each choice. For example, in the last few paragraphs of the book, Roach weighs out the pros and cons of donating her body to science. She would love to donate her body to science, but her squeamish husband may not want that. Roach does not want to make her death worse for her husband to handle. Although she is unclear of exactly what will happen to her body once she dies, the way she explains her reasoning makes the ending not only satisfying, but also convincing to follow what she does. Ultimately, Roach thinks that it is up to the living to decide what should be done with her body. Because she uses logical reasoning and her signature humorous style, the ending is tied up smoothly leaving the reader completely satisfied with having read the book.

Tow #15: Article: "5 Tech Products That Will Be Dead in 5 Years" by Micah Singleton

Micah Singleton, a writer for Time Magezine, has written many articles about the future of technology in the Tech section of Time. In his latest, "5 Tech Products That Will Be Dead in 5 Years," Singleton claims that several products will quickly be replaced by products and services such as the smartphone and Netflix. The five products he specifically mentions will no longer be used or produced in five years are Blu-ray/DVD players, stand-alone in-car GPS units, Dial-up internet, low-end digital cameras, and physical car keys. Singleton uses statistics and historical examples of technology falling out of the market to explain to a skeptical, older audience that these five products will likely be gone in five years.  For example, to prove that smartphones will replace stand-alone GPS units, Singleton states that over 1.3 billion iPhones and Android smartphones have been sold around the world in about six years. All iPhones and Android smartphones come with GPS, so it has caused the sales of stand-alone GPS units to decrease 15-20% every year. By using statistics, Singleton appeals to logos and uses facts that can be easily verified, therefore strengthening his argument and making it more convincing. Also, the use of these statistics show that Singleton did his research and is credible. Along with using statistics to support his claim, Singleton also uses historical examples. These examples appeal to logos as well, but are likely used to convince an older person that technology products are replaced constantly, therefore the products that are widely used today will not be used at all in five years. Singleton briefly mentions the end of VCR to prove that blu-ray and DVD players will be replaced by something else (Netflix). Older people clearly remember the switch to DVD's from VCR, so they shouldn't be surprised that with new streaming technology on the rise, eventually DVD's will fall. Although many people will be uncomfortable with the changes, there will be changes because if enough people stop buying certain products, it would be foolish to keep making those products for the few people that refuse to change.

Tow #14: Article: "Jahi McMath, Alive in Social Media" by Meghan Daum

An author for the Los Angeles Times, Meghan Daum, has written many novels and essays on social and cultural issues. On December 31, 2013 she published an opinion piece about, Jahi McMath, a thirteen year-old girl who has been brain dead since December 12th, 2013. Daum believed that McMath should be taken off of the ventilator this is currently keeping her alive. In McMath's court case, the court decided to keep McMath on a ventilator until at least January 7th, 2014. The original deadline was December 30th, but the court ruled to extend it because the parents do not believe their child is dead and plan to airlift her to a hospital in New York. McMath became brain dead after undergoing a routine tonsillectomy and went into cardiac arrest. When a person is brain dead, all of their brain functions have completely stopped and it is irreversible. Nothing can make that person's brain function again. It is for this reason that McMath should be taken off the ventilator. The doctors have already done all that they can do and the girl's state has not changed. Although a routine procedure should never go as wrong as it went, nothing can change what has already happened to McMath. Some people argue that McMath needs to stay on the ventilator because she is "only brain dead" and the doctors are trying to kill her because they want her organs. However, being brain dead is not the same as a coma. When a person is in a coma, there is still brain activity. There is no activity in McMath's brain and to keep hoping for her to wake up is futile. It is a waste of the ventilator machine to keep McMath alive and should her parents chose to have her organs donated, they could be useful to someone who is dying. It is a tragedy that McMath became brain dead in a routine procedure and the doctors who made the mistake most certainly should have to pay for it, however now that McMath has been kept alive for almost a month by a machine, it is time to take her off of it.